Love and Ramen
by Baron Zed
Summary: Naruto and Ayame find themselves in the beginning of a relationship. Will it survive the revelation of their secrets? Post training trip/time skip.
1. Chapter 1: Getting to Know You Again

Naruto and his friends were created by Kishimoto Masashi.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The format for this story will be a little different than my other stories. It's also my first attempt at making a pure romance. I think it will come out a little better than my other story that turned into a romance by accident (A Pleasant Sort of Hell). There won't be any citrus scenes. Enjoy.

* * *

"Old Man!" Uzumaki Naruto called as he came up to the Ramen Ichiraku Stand for a late lunch. "Give me a large miso and then another! I have a lot of bowls to make up for!"

Naruto had just returned from an almost three-year training trip with Jiraiya the Toad Sage. This was his second stop in the village. He would have made it his first, but he was afraid of the bodily harm that Tsunade would inflict upon him if he did not stop by the Hokage's Office first.

"Ayame-chan," Teuchi, the owner said, "our business is saved! Our favorite customer has returned!"

"Hallelujah!" Ayame said in return.

Both ramen cooks came out from behind the bar to great him. Both were wearing aprons. Teuchi was wearing a hat. Ayame had her brown hair in a kerchief and was holding her ladle.

"You came to see us first right, Naruto-kun?" Ayame asked.

Naruto hemmed a little bit. "I would have, Ayame-chan, but I had to report to Baachan first."

Ayame glared and arched an eyebrow.

Naruto sweated a little. "Ayame-chan, she's the Hokage and I'm one of her shinobi, just coming back from a long trip!"

"And how is that more important than the people that made sure you didn't starve before you could become old enough to be a shinobi?" Ayame demanded.

"Plus, Baachan hits harder than you do," Naruto muttered.

"Oh, really?" Ayame said sweetly.

Naruto moved to shield his head with his arms, but was too slow to avoid getting thwacked with the ladle. He looked up and saw Ayame idly twirling the ladle one handed through her fingers. He noted that she was not really paying attention to what she was doing and was doing a better job of it than he could. He also noted that she was in a loose combat stance.

The one thing that Jiraiya had really taught him was how to pay attention to things. Even before the training trip he had not been as oblivious as everyone had thought he was, but he would not have noticed. He was about to ask her about it, but then thought better of it. There were not many people about, but they were not exactly private here.

"It is good to see you again, Ayame-chan," he said.

"You too, Naruto-kun," she said. "You're looking good. You finally put on some height. I have to look up to you now!"

"Hey, I wasn't that short," he complained.

"Yes, you were!" Teuchi called from the back.

"Did Jiraiya-sama make you eat more than Ramen?" Ayame teased.

"Yes," Naruto said with a scowl.

"We really do appreciate your dedication to our art," said Ayame, "but you really should eat more than just ramen."

"Blasphemy!" Teuchi said with a grin as he brought out two bowls.

"Did Jiraiya-sama teach you some powerful techniques?" Ayame asked.

"Of course!" Naruto said with his biggest grin.

He thought he saw a bit of concern touch her eyes momentarily. Internally he grimaced. He had never been able to keep secrets from Ayame. He knew, however, that she would not call him on his lie—at least not in public.

Jiraiya had taught him a handful of things, but none of them were the big fancy techniques that Naruto craved. He had mainly focused on the basics: taijutsu, breaking out of genjutsu, throwing, and chakra control plus toad summoning and what he called "Hokage skills." The Hokage skills consisted of observation, negotiation, and calligraphy. The only flashy thing they had worked on was utilizing the Kyuubi no Youko's chakra. Jiraiya was a decent enough teacher—when he taught. However, he had spent way too much time doing his "research." Personally, Naruto was disappointed at having spent almost three years to get his taijutsu, kunai skills, and chakra control up to chuunin levels, being able to recognize and dispel B-rank genjutsu, and being able to control up to three tails of the Kyuubi safely.

He ate his ramen slowly—for him—as he brooded over the fact that all of his friends had been promoted. Neji was even a Jounin! He had had to spend time away from his friends and had not really learned anything he could not have learned here. It was true that he could not have practiced using the Kyuubi's chakra here, but they had stopped practicing that about two-thirds of the way through the trip.

He looked up and saw Ayame's concerned eyes looking at him. He smiled at her and picked up his eating to his normal ramen-devouring pace. He called for a third bowl and ate that quickly.

When he was finished, Ayame called out to her father, "Tousan, I'm going to show Naruto-kun what has changed around the village while he was gone, okay?"

"That's fine, Ayame-chan," he replied. "Just be back before the dinner rush!"

Ayame dragged him out of the door and dragged him through town. To be fair, she did point out some new shops and restaurants that had popped up since he had left, but he could tell she was using it as an excuse to corner him so she could interrogate him. Sure enough, after only half an hour they ended up in a deserted park.

"Okay, Naruto-kun," she said. "What gives? I've never seen you eat ramen that slowly."

He sighed and sat down on the grass. "Just feeling a little discouraged. I've heard that all my peers have been promoted. The guy I beat in the Chuunin Exams is even a jounin now. It makes me wonder if I would be a chuunin too, if I had stayed."

"Well, at least Jiraiya-sama taught you awesome techniques as a compensation, right?" she said.

Naruto snorted. "If only. Ero-sennin taught me more than Kakashi-sensei, but that wasn't hard. The only cool techniques that Ero-sennin has taught me, he did before the training trip."

"Ero-sennin?" Ayame questioned with a giggle. "I have to admit that suits him according to his reputation."

Naruto laughed. "I know, right?" He sighed. "I shouldn't be bitter. Ero-sennin has taught me a lot, but most of it was catching up to stuff that I should have learned before the trip."

"Like what?" she asked.

"You'll appreciate this," Naruto said as he pulled out a small notebook, a brush, and a small bottle of ink. He wrote "Ramen Ichiraku is the food of the gods" on the page.

"Wow!" she said. "That is an improvement!"

"Ero-sennin says that I'm almost up to his standards. He says that after a little more improvement he'll teach me something cool."

Ayame had a thoughtful gleam in her eye. Then suddenly she smacked him in the shoulder.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"

"How come you never put that much effort into writing while I was teaching you?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. "You never offered a cool technique?"

Ayame rolled her eyes. "Idiot."

"Hey!" Naruto said. "I _am_ really grateful you taught me how to read and write."

She stood up. "I should get back so that Tousan doesn't get swamped."

She gave him a hug.

"Thanks for talking to me, Neechan," he said.

"No problem, Naru-chan," she said.

He frowned at her. "I'm too old for you to be calling me 'chan.'"

"You're also too old to be calling me 'Neechan,'" she retorted.

"You don't want me to call you sister?" he asked, startled.

"I'm your friend, Naruto-kun," she said. "I won't be offended if you call me 'Neechan,' but I _will_ call you 'Naru-chan,' if you call me that."

She gave him a saucy wink and left with a little extra sway to her walk.

"Huh," Naruto said. "I'll never understand girls." He had no idea if she was just teasing him or if she was actually trying to flirt.

* * *

"Old Man," Naruto called as he entered Ramen Ichiraku the next day, "get me a couple of large pork ramens!"

The ramen stand was empty again. He almost always came in the off hours so as to not cost them too much business.

"Of course!" Teuchi returned. "Welcome back, Naruto-kun."

"Hi, Naruto-kun," Ayame said.

"Hiya, Ayame-chan," Naruto said. He decided to ignore whatever had happened to end their walk the day before other than resolving not to call her "Neechan" anymore.

When he was working on his third bowl, Ayame sat down next to him. "How has your return to Konoha been?" she asked.

"It's been great!" he said animatedly. "Baachan put me on a team with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan. Kakashi-sensei gave us the Bell Test again."

He pushed back from the bar, having finished his third large bowl.

"Come and tell me about it," Ayame said, grabbing him by the arm.

"I'll be back in a bit, Tousan," she called to her father.

They ended up at the park again. Ayame sat down facing him.

"The Bell Test is an awful test," she said. "I don't care that it has an honored history."

"It does?" he said.

"Sure," she answered. "The Nidaime Hokage gave it first to his students, Sandaime-sama and Hokage-sama's councilors. The Sandaime Hokage gave it to his students, the Densetsu no Sannin. Jiraiya-sama gave it to Yondaime-sama. The Yondaime Hokage gave it to Kakashi-san and his teammates. Kakashi-san gave it to you and your teammates."

"Wow," Naruto said. "I didn't know that! How do you know that?"

She rolled her eyes. "People talk while they're eating. Actually, the test itself isn't that bad—if Kakashi-san isn't giving it. According to what I've heard, he's particularly mean about it. For five years he was given the best teams out of the Academy and he failed them all by subjecting them to ruthless mind games. Yours is the first team he passed."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know why he passed us, to be honest. The way we 'showed teamwork' was pretty weak. Emo-chan shared food with me and Sakura-chan followed his lead."

Ayame giggled. "Your nickname for the 'Last Uchiha' still cracks me up."

Naruto flashed her a huge grin. "It is pretty great, isn't it?

"Anyway," he continued. "The Bell Test wasn't that bad this time since most of the psychological torture was moot."

"Did you get the bells?" Ayame asked curiously.

He nodded. "It was pretty tough, but we got them. Sakura-chan is tons better now that she's been trained by Baachan and I'm not Konoha's most unpredictable shinobi for nothing."

"How'd you do it?" she asked.

"We targeted his biggest weakness," Naruto said with a smirk.

"What? Those disgusting orange books of his?" she said.

Grinning even wider he nodded.

"You didn't!" Ayame said. She burst out into genuine laughter. Ayame was a very controlled person. On the surface, she smiled and giggled a lot, but Naruto knew it was a mask—much like his own boisterous mask. His mask hid his loneliness, but he had never figured out what hers hid. He decided that he would get her to discard it around him—not because he wanted to invade her privacy, but because he wanted to hear her laugh again.

"Yeah, even two-on-one, Kakashi-sensei is pretty tough," he said.

"How are you getting along with Sakura-san?" Ayame asked.

He thought about it for a moment. Maybe if he opened up a little, she would too. "Pretty well, actually," he said. "She's been friendly to me most of the time, unlike when we were first assigned to Team Seven." He rubbed the top of his head. "She still has a hair-trigger temper though."

Ayame scowled at the gesture. "I don't see what you like about her."

Naruto gave her a faint smile. "Did you know she was the first person my age to be nice to me?"

"What!? Really?"

"Yeah. Some girls were picking on her because of her forehead and I told them off. We played together for a couple of days at the park before she stopped showing up." His smile faded. "Her parents must have warned her off. A few weeks after that I only ever saw her with Ino-chan until the Academy."

"And you kept after her because of that?" Ayame asked.

"At first," he admitted, "but even I'm not that persistent. Really, I kept asking her out because she was a safe and easy way to get attention."

"Safe!?" Ayame exclaimed. "She continually hit you on the head!"

"Ah," Naruto said, "Sakura-chan didn't hit that hard until she studied under Baachan."

Ayame folded her arms and huffed. "Well, I don't like her. Shallow fangirls like her give kunoichi a bad name."

Naruto arched an eyebrow. "And your invested in the reputation of kunoichi, why?"

She rolled her eyes. "Kunoichi are the public face of women in the village, silly. The rest of us are respected in proportion to how kunoichi are respected."

Naruto had a suspicion that Ayame had attended the Academy, at the very least. Sometimes he got the feeling there was more to it than that.

"If you wanted a girl's attention, there was less painful choice," Ayame said.

"Who, you?" he teased.

She rolled her eyes. "Please. Until you came back from your training trip, you were much too young for me."

"And now?" He grinned at her.

She grinned back at him. "Now it would just be momentarily scandalous." She swatted his knee. "No, silly, I was talking about someone else."

"I assume you mean Hinata-chan?" he asked.

She nodded. He could see a small gleam of satisfaction in her eyes. She knew him better than anyone and was aware that he was not as clueless as he made out to be.

He leaned back and looked up at the sky. "I've been tempted more than once. She's a nice girl, even if she is horrendously handicapped by her self-esteem issues. It was an immense pleasure to take her idiot cousin down a few pegs on her behalf at the Chuunin Exams."

"But. . ." Ayame prompted.

He snorted. "The village pariah and the unwanted princess of the Hyuuga clan? They would slap a Caged Bird Seal on her faster than we could blink." He sat back up again and looked Ayame in the eyes. "I could never live with myself if they did that to her because of me."

"There are ways around that. . ." Ayame said.

"Sure," Naruto waved an arm. "She becomes a legitimate clan heir or leader by overcoming her confidence issues and I become Hokage."

She arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to become Hokage?"

"Well, yeah," he said with a grin, "but that will take a few years. Until then, Hinata-chan is better off if I act clueless."

This time he swatted her knee. "What's with grilling me about my love life?" He grinned at her. "Checking to see if you have any competition or are you being my Neechan?"

He got another genuine laugh out of her. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she said coyly.

Then she leaned over and ruffled his hair fondly, like she would when he was little, as she got up.

"I'll see you later, Naru-chan."

There was a definite sway to her hips as she walked away.

Naruto collapsed onto his back and placed his hands behind his head as he stared at the sky and groaned. This new way she was teasing him was confusing. Then he smiled. It might be fun though.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Most things that happen off screen are only trivially different than canon.

Chan vs. kun: Chan is used for kids and teen girls or by little kids. Naruto using it for anyone else is disrespectful. Ayame is a marginal case since she's 20. Using it for Sasuke is deliberately insulting. Using it for Tsunade is also an insult, but in that case it's a fond one.

Yes, I'm reusing my favorite nickname for Sasuke. I like it better than the standard fanon "teme" which is actually a rude way of saying "you" in Japanese.


	2. Chapter 2: Please Walk Away from Me

Naruto walked up to Ramen Ichiraku tiredly. The mission to rescue Gaara had been exhausting. Physically, he was completely recovered, but he was mentally and emotionally worn out.

"Hey, Old Man," he yelled. "I'll take salt ramen this time."

"Coming right up!" Teuchi yelled back.

"Hi, Naruto-kun," Ayame said as she came out of the kitchen. She took a look at him and said, with concern, "Are you alright?"

He waved her off. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"You tired?" she said incredulously.

"Just got back from a rough mission."

Ayame watched at him pensively as he ate his ramen a little slower than usual. When he finished she led him away, holding him by the hand this time instead of the arm like she usually did.

"Back in a bit, Tousan," she called.

When they got to their spot in the park she sat down and then had him put his head on her lap. She gently massaged his scalp.

"Can you talk about it?" she asked gently after about five minutes of sitting in silence.

"Most of it is classified, but I think I can tell you some," he said. "Some S-rank missing nin kidnapped the Kazekage, who is a friend of mine named Gaara-kun. Suna asked Konoha to send a team to help. We managed to save him, but for a while it looked like Gaara-kun was dead."

"Were there any casualties?" she asked.

"An old Suna nin sacrificed herself to save Gaara-kun," he said.

"Is that why you're sad?" she asked.

"A little," he said, "but she had led a full life and she did it voluntarily. She was an ornery old coot, but she pulled through for Gaara-kun in the end. Most of it is just how close Gaara-kun came to not making it."

She continued to massage his scalp. He closed his eyes and relaxed. There was one incident on the mission that troubled him.

"We ran into some missing nin using a weird possesion clone technique," he said, deciding to voice some of his thoughts out loud.

"Oh?" Ayame said.

"Yeah, I've run into them before. They tried to catch me for some bounty or other when I was looking for Baachan with Ero-sennin a few years ago. This time they were working with the guys who kidnapped Gaara-kun. One of them had me dead to rights, but he _chose_ not to disable me."

He had accidentally looked Itachi right in the eye when he was fighting the weird possession version of him. Itachi had calmly _winked_ at him as some strange version of counting coup. Naruto had freaked out before deciding that there was nothing flirtatious about the wink.

"What do you know about the guy?" Ayame asked.

"Not much really," Naruto said. "Only that he's supposed to be a genius, he murdered almost all of his own family, and I saw him torture his brother into a coma the first time we met."

"Maybe there's more to him than that?" Ayame said. "Didn't your sensei tell you that shinobi are supposed to 'look underneath the underneath?'"

"I don't know, Ayame," he said. "What reasonable explanation could drive a guy to kill and torture his family."

"I don't know either," Ayame said disgustedly. "I suspect there's a special kind of hell waiting for that guy."

Naruto detected a trace of bitterness in her voice. He would not be surprised if she had figured out who he was talking about; Ayame was very smart. He wondered if Itachi had killed one of her friends. They were about the same age.

Naruto snorted. "That's enough about murderous missing nin," he said. "Let's talk about something more cheerful—like ramen. Is your dad cooking up any new flavors for me to try out?"

Ayame laughed. Naruto was pleased to hear it was her real laugh.

"You just got back after three years! What do you think?" she said.

"Awesome!" Naruto said cheerfully. "Why hasn't he said anything yet?"

Ayame snorted. "The three times you've come to the stand, you've come in demanding a flavor. He decided to wait until you asked if he had any."

"What?" Naruto demanded, sitting up. "He knows that trying new ramen flavors is one of my favorite things!"

She swatted his shoulder. "Oh calm down. The new flavors will still be there the next time you come by."

"Flavors?" he asked hopefully.

Ayame laughed again. "Yes, Naruto-kun. Flavors. Three, to be exact. One for each year you were gone."

Ayame stood up and rubbed her eyes, shedding fake tears. "Naruto-kun, you're going to make me think you only like me for my ramen."

"That's not true, Ayame-chan," he protested. "I also like you for your scalp massages."

"Tease!" Ayame said with a grin. She blew him a kiss and sashayed out of the park.

"I'm the tease?!" Naruto asked himself incredulously after she had left.

Only after she had left did he realize he would have to leave early the next day for the mission to meet the contact Sasori had told Sakura about. He would have to wait to try the new flavors!

* * *

Almost a week later, Naruto walked up to Ramen Ichiraku.

"Old Man!" he called. "Give me a bowl of each of your new flavors!"

"Ayame-chan spilled the beans, eh?" Teuchi said.

"Yeah, and I'm not happy that you didn't tell me the first time I came by," Naruto said.

"Calm down, Naruto-kun," Ayame said as she emerged from the kitchen. "What difference does a couple of weeks make."

"A couple of weeks?" Naruto said. "It's new ramen!"

"Don't discourage him, Ayame-chan," Teuchi said. "Do you hear that passion in his voice? That's the sound of your inheritance being secured."

Naruto saw _something_ flicker through Ayame's dark eyes, but was not sure what it was.

The new flavors were tomato with meatball, pork with curry, and black bean with corn.

"Not bad, Old Man," Naruto said as he pushed away from the bar.

"Think any will make it into your normal rotation?" Teuchi asked.

"Maybe the curry," Naruto said. "The others I think I'll need to be in the mood for."

As he stood up to go, he realized that Ayame was watching him. For the first time since he had gotten back from the training trip, she was not dragging him off to talk. He felt a pang in his heart. He decided he enjoyed their little talks and was not willing to skip it.

"Take a quick walk with me, Ayame-chan?" he asked her.

"Sure, Naruto-kun," she said with a smile. "I'd like that.

"Back in a bit, Tousan," she called.

Her hand slipped into his and they walked to the park. Naruto wanted to talk to her about seeing Sasuke again and the disastrous fight with Orochimaru. He wanted to confide in her about how worried he was that he had lost control under the Fox's influence again. However, he did not. Jiraiya had somehow managed to drum "operational security" and "need to know" into his head. He could not imagine Ayame betraying him or Konoha, but Jiraiya had told him some of the nasty things that could be done with seals. He had seen evidence of that in Suna. Evidently suborning a couple of the guards with seals was how Sasori had penetrated Suna's defense.

"You seem distracted, Naruto-kun," Ayame said.

"It's just that I'm getting higher-ranked missions now. The last two I've been on have been troubling."

"Aren't you still a genin?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm getting chuunin-grade missions though. Baachan trusts me, but evidently politics is preventing her from just handing me a promotion."

"Do you think you'll be in the village for a bit?" she asked. "It seems like you've only been here a couple of days since you've gotten back."

"Yeah, I should be," he answered. "Kakashi-sensei said that he was going to check my elemental affinity so that I could do some elemental training. It should be cool."

"Which one are you hoping for?" she asked.

"Lightning would be cool, I think," he said. "Then maybe Kakashi-sensei will teach me the Chidori, like he did Emo-chan."

"Not fire?" she asked.

"Nah," he said. "I wouldn't want Emo-chan to think that I'm trying to copy him."

She laughed.

He grinned. "Although. . . that would make for a good prank. Do you know where I could get some Sharingan contact lenses?"

She laughed again. "Don't the little tomoes spin on the real Sharingan?"

He waved dismissively. "Details, details. I bet Emo-chan gets so angry when he sees them that he doesn't even notice."

"You'll have to tell me how it goes," she said with a smile.

"I'd have to practice my grunting first," he said. "Hn."

"It's more like this, Naruto-kun," she said. "Hn."

"Wow, Ayame-chan," he said. "Dye your hair black and you could totally pass as an Uchiha." Naruto was actually impressed at her rendition of the Uchiha grunt. He wasn't aware that many Uchiha had eaten at Ramen Ichiraku before the massacre. Realistically, while her eyes were the right color for an un-activated Sharingan, but her facial structure was not right for an Uchiha.

"And be the target of fanboys?" she said dismissively. "No way."

Naruto flexed his bicep. "I'd fight them off, Milady," he said gallantly.

She looked at him with doe eyes. "Oh? would you, kind sir?"

Both of them started laughing.

Ayame sighed. "I better get back to the shop."

She gave him a hug and then walked off. This time her teasing was limited to the extra sway she put into her hips.

* * *

The next day found Naruto approaching Ramen Ichiraku in the late evening. After polishing off his three bowls, he invited Ayame to go on a walk with him again.

"Tousan can lock up by himself," she told him as they left. "We can stay out as long as we want."

They made small talk as they walked through the village. This time, instead of taking her to the park, he took her to the top of the Hokage Monument and his favorite spot on top of the Yondaime's head.

"Can you tell me what your affinity is?" Ayame asked him.

"I really shouldn't," he said. "Ero-sennin would have a fit if it got out somehow." He quickly added, "It's not that I don't trust you; it's just that Ero-sennin has drilled into me to only tell people information about myself that they need to know."

"I understand," she said amiably.

"Thank you," he said in acknowledgment. Wanting to give her something, he said, "Kakashi-sensei has me training with Asuma-sensei."

She smiled at him. "Wind Nature, huh?"

He arched an eyebrow at her. It was circumstantial, but just another small bit of evidence that she had had more than just Academy shinobi training.

"I hear things," she said. "It's not like Asuma's elemental nature is secret. Stuff like that finds its way into the Bingo Books sooner than later and once it's in the Bingo Books, most shinobi stop hiding it."

Naruto was not convinced by her argument, but let it go.

He looked out at the village. "This spot has the best view of anywhere near Konoha."

"It is lovely," Ayame agreed.

Naruto scooted around behind her and pulled her head down into his lap. He removed her kerchief and started massaging her scalp. "I thought I'd return the favor."

"That feels good, Naruto-kun," she said with a relaxed voice.

"I'm a quick learner," he said, "as long as it doesn't involve boring lectures."

She laughed.

They stayed up on the monument for an hour, quietly talking. Halfway through, Ayame insisted that they trade spots. Naruto was agreeable as he had enjoyed his previous scalp massage.

He walked her back to the apartment she shared with her father. She gave him a hug as he dropped her off at the door. He found he was disappointed that he did not get to watch her walk away from him.


	3. Chapter 3: Naruto's Darkest Secret?

Naruto stumbled up to Ramen Ichiraku in the midmorning.

After he placed his order, Ayame sat down next to him. "You look like death warmed over," she said.

Naruto chuckled ruefully, rubbing the back of his head. "I spent all night training."

Ayame smacked his shoulder lightly. "Idiot. You need to take better care of yourself."

When Naruto almost collapsed trying to eat his second bowl, Ayame dragged him to his apartment.

She led him to his bedroom and he collapsed onto his bed.

She worked his sandals off his feet. "I don't think I've ever seen you this exhausted—even after spending all night setting up pranks."

"Mental exhaustion from abusing the living daylight out of the Shadow Clone Technique," he mumbled.

"How many were you using?" she asked.

"Couple hundred, I think," he said. It occurred to him that he should not be giving out that information, but he trusted Ayame.

"I'm surprised you didn't pass out from the overload," she said absently.

He chuckled nervously.

She punched his shoulder hard, realizing that he had. "You released them all at once and passed out, didn't you? Honestly, Naruto-kun, if it weren't for your special friend, a stunt like that could give you brain damage. Didn't your sensei warn you?"

Her words registered on him. She knew about the Kyuubi! Adrenaline rushed through his veins jolting him to full awareness.

His fear must have shown on his face, because she patted his shoulder. "Calm down, Naruto-kun. I've known about the Fox for a long time—much longer than you have, in fact." She looked him in the eyes and smiled gently. "I've been around enough shinobi to know the difference between a container with a storage seal and what's sealed inside it." She rested her hand on his chest. "I trust Yondaime-sama's seal work and, more than that, I know _you_. You're no monster, Uzumaki Naruto-kun."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"Well, Sandaima-sama's law prohibited it," she said, "but more than that, I didn't want you to feel like you were the demon; you were too young to understand about sealing."

Naruto had mixed feelings about her response. It was true that his first response upon hearing about it, even when he was twelve, was to assume that he was the demon. However, it would have been nice to know why everyone hated him.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"I was old enough to remember all the rumors that flew around the week after you were born."

"Really?" he asked. "You were, what? Four?"

She nodded. "You don't forget something like the Kyuubi's presence bearing down on you."

"Forgive me for not telling you?" she asked, with a sad smile on her face.

"Of course I forgive you, Ayame-chan!" he exclaimed. "I don't believe you're capable of doing anything bad enough that I wouldn't forgive you!"

If anything, his words made her appear even sadder—which confused him greatly. She noticed him watching her and she withdrew into her cheerful mask.

She noticed his concern and smiled at him. "Don't worry about it, Naruto-kun. Just remembering some sad things about _that_ day."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," she replied. "It's certainly not _your_ fault."

"I just don't like to see you sad," he said.

"You're very sweet, Naruto-kun." She leaned over and lightly kissed his forehead. "Get some rest and I'll see you later."

She turned and walked out of the room. After she was gone, Naruto lightly touched the spot where her lips had touched his skin.

* * *

The next day, Naruto stopped by Ramen Ichiraku in the midafternoon. Ayame's previous melancholy was completely absent. They went to the park and talked for about half an hour.

As she stood up to go, Ayame suddenly grinned coquettishly. "You came to see me in the afternoon so you could watch me walk away from you, didn't you?"

He laughed, but did not deny it. He gave her his best foxy grin.

She laughed as she turned around and walked off with her most flirtatious walk yet.

* * *

The following day, Naruto came by Ramen Ichiraku in the late evening.

As they walked away, from the stand, Ayame said, "Decided that you would rather spend more time with me than ogle me, huh?"

He put on his most innocent face and said, "I'm hurt that you would think I'm that shallow, Ayame-chan."

She laughed.

They ended up on top of the Hokage Monument again and talked quietly while they watched the stars.

When he took her back to her apartment, she stopped him 20 meters from her door. She grinned impishly at him. "I wouldn't want you to go unrewarded for not being shallow today."

She winked at him and said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

He laughed as she sashayed toward the door.

* * *

It was actually several days before Naruto was able to stop by Ramen Ichiraku. When they had time to talk, Ayame asked, "Been keeping super busy, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei has been training me into the ground," he said. "Sorry I haven't been able to come by."

"Any reason he's upped the training?" she asked.

"Some bounty hunters killed Asuma-sensei," he said sadly.

"I'm sad to hear that," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

A swirl of leaves appeared behind them resolving into Kakashi.

"No time to flirt, my cute little student," he said with an "eye smile." "Back to training."

They both disappeared in a Body Flicker.

* * *

Naruto walked into Ramen Ichiraku with Sakura and Ino trailing him. It had been about two weeks since he had last been there.

"I can handle myself, Sakura-chan, Ino-chan," he said.

"Naruto-kun, you're an idiot," Sakura said. "You can't even move your arms! I'm amazed that Shizune-senpai let you out of the hospital. How are you going to eat your stupid ramen without arms?"

"I'll feed him," Ayame offered.

"Thanks, Ayame-chan," Naruto smiled fondly at her. "I'll take three large beef!"

Ayame shoveled ramen into his mouth with chopsticks and then held the bowl up so that he could sip the broth.

"What did you do to yourself this time, Naruto-kun?" she scolded.

"I have an awesome new technique, Ayame-chan," he said. "I used it on one of the bounty hunters that took out Asuma-sensei. Using it just has a little side-effect, I'll be okay in a few more days."

"Idiot," Ayame said in a tone of fond exasperation. "You need to take better care of yourself."

"What's this?" Ino said. "My gossip senses are tingling. Forehead!" she exclaimed. "Why haven't you told me about this development!?"

"I didn't know, Pig!" Sakura said. "I thought he was just coming here for the ramen! You know how obsessed he is about ramen!"

"What are you two talking about?" Naruto asked, irritated. Ayame had stopped feeding him to glare at the girls.

"You! Flirting! With Ramen-chan!" Ino said.

"And she's flirting back!" Sakura said.

"My name is Ayame," the ramen girl complained.

Sakura snorted. "You hang out with Naruto-kun. You should be used to irritating nicknames."

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Naruto asked.

"Nope," Ino said with a grin.

Naruto rolled his eyes. Ayame was still glaring at the younger girls. Naruto cleared his throat. "May I have some more ramen please, Ayame-chan?"

Now it was Ayame's turn to roll her eyes. She started feeding him again.

With Ino and Sakura watching like hawks, Naruto settled for nodding goodbye to Ayame and Teuchi.


	4. Chapter 4: Ayame's Deepest Secret?

It took about a week for Ino and Sakura to get bored of following him to Ramen Ichiraku. By that time, Naruto's arms had recovered. However, he was feeling a little bit discouraged about his training. When Ayame asked him about it, he said, "I'll tell you about it after we leave."

After he finished his ramen and they had found a private spot to talk, he said, "I'm a little bit irritated with Kakashi-sensei."

"Judging by the man's reputation, that isn't a shock," Ayame said.

"Don't get me wrong, the elemental and shape manipulation training he's helped me with are totally awesome and I got an awesome new technique from them. . ." He noticed her expression. "that I will use only in a life and death situation, but I asked him for some ninjutsu to help round out my repertoire and he refused."

"Did he give a reason?" she asked. "Kakashi-san has the reputation of being a lazy jerk, but he's usually not _that_ bad from what I hear."

"Yeah," Naruto said. "He said that my hand seal technique is slow enough and sloppy enough that standard ninjutsu would be a detriment to my fighting skills. When I asked him to help me with it, he gave me a scroll with instructions."

She snorted. "Typical of him."

"The scroll is kind of confusing though," he admitted. "I don't even really know how to start. I've only ever learned one technique from a scroll, and that was mostly because there was only one hand seal to figure out. I mainly did trial and error until the chakra going through the clone seal felt right."

"What do you think would help you learn them better?" she asked.

"If I had someone help me out by showing them to me in person and making corrections, that would be a big help," Naruto said. "I have a hard time connecting their two-dimensional image on the paper to how they look in three dimensions."

Ayame stared blankly at the rolled-out scroll.

"Hey," Naruto said suddenly, "you have some shinobi training, don't you? Could you help me with this?"

"I do?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

Naruto grinned at her and nodded. "You hide it really well, but you let down your guard a little bit around me. I've never asked you about it, since you seem to be hiding it." He looked at her seriously. "I respect your privacy, Ayame-chan. If you don't want to talk about it or have anything to do with shinobi skills, I'm fine with that."

She looked at the scroll for almost a full minute before saying, "I'll help you, Naruto-kun."

She took a deep breath and said, "The method you used to learn the clone hand seal is actually a good methodology. The hand seals actually vary slightly from person to person. It's best to find the finger placement that works the best for you individually. This is one of the great advantages that clan children have over other children in that they typically have tutors that can help them with this. If you learn just at the Academy, they really only have time to teach you the basics. Show me a Tiger seal."

Naruto did a Tiger seal, as best he could.

Ayame gave him some pointers on finger placement.

"Now, focus some chakra into the seal," she said.

Naruto did so. It felt a little off.

"When I do the Tiger seal, my chakra feels warm," she said. "This is because the Tiger seal is used primarily for Fire Release techniques. When I do a Dog seal, my chakra feels cool, because it's used primarily for Water Release. Those aren't the only uses for those seals, but they help your chakra have fire-like and water-like characteristics, respectively."

"I think I get what you're saying," Naruto said. "Let me make some Shadow Clones."

Naruto made eleven Shadow Clones. One for each of the main hand seals. Ayame went from clone to clone giving pointers. After an hour, each of Naruto's clones felt like they had found the "sweet spot" for each seal and could reproduce it most of the time.

"Now the trick is to practice," she said. "Lots and lots of practice."

Naruto dispelled his clones and made forty new ones.

"There are sequences that are specially designed for training," Ayame said. "They are made so that you don't accidently do a ninjutsu technique. I'll show you a few of my favourites."

Ayame ran through the sequences slowly, saying the name of each seal as she did. "You don't actually want to say the name of the seal as you practice it," she said. "If you do, it can become part of the 'muscle memory' and actually slow down your speed. I'm just saying them to help you remember."

After he and his clones had practiced for another half hour, the real Naruto said, "You're pretty good at this, Ayame-chan. How fast are you?"

Ayame smirked at him. "I'm pretty good."

"Only pretty good?" he responded.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased.

"I would, actually," he said. "Show me?"

She looked up at the night sky for a few moments before saying, "Okay."

Then she looked at him and smirked. "Watch closely or you'll miss it."

He laughed and said, "Okay, Ayame-chan."

She blazed through about three dozen hand seals in less than ten seconds.

"Wow, Ayame-chan!" he exclaimed. "You've had more than just Academy training. Can you tell me what rank you were?"

She was silent for a few long moments before saying, "Only Tousan knows. It's possible that Godaime-sama knows, from Sandaime-sama's files, but I've never spoken to her about it. Please don't tell anyone other than Hokage-sama. I'm trusting you with a lot." She looked into Naruto's eyes. "I was in ANBU."

To say that Naruto was shocked was an understatement. "Really? That's amazing. But you're not now?"

She nodded. "Medical discharge."

"Really? You seem okay to me," he said.

She sighed. "The reason for the medical discharge was psychological."

Naruto was confused. "But you're one of the most grounded people I know."

She snorted. "Any competent shinobi can hide their issues when they need to. It _does_ help to have an outlet. Mine, luckily enough, is cooking." She looked at him in the eyes again. "You know all about hiding your problems behind a mask, don't you, Naruto-kun?"

He sighed. "I do."

A memory came to the surface of Naruto's mind. "I remember you were sick for a month when I was eight. Was that when you were discharged?"

She nodded sadly.

Another memory bubbled up. "Hey, Emo-chan was out at that same time. Did it have to do with the massacre?"

Ayame was deathly pale. Naruto knew he was right even before she nodded.

"After Itachi came after me the first time, three years ago, I asked Ero-sennin about him. Also because Emo-chan wants to kill him. Ero-sennin only really knew the bare bones: he was a genius, ANBU captain at 13, four years older than me, supposedly did it to 'test himself,' joined Akatsuki." He paused. "Hey, he's your age. Did you know him?"

She nodded jerkily. "Even before the massacre, I always had a love-hate relationship with Itachi."

Naruto had a thought. "Hey, Itachi was 'your Emo-chan,' wasn't he?"

Ayame snorted in dark amusement.

Naruto continued, "But you've given up hope of bringing him back, haven't you?"

"There are some things that can't be forgiven, Naruto-kun," she said in a quiet, sad voice.

Naruto watched her stare at her hands which were folded in her lap for what seemed like ages. For once, he did not know what to say to break the sad mood.

Finally, Ayame looked at him and said, "Walk me home, Naruto-kun? I'd love to help you again another time, but right now, I just don't feel up to it."

"I'm sorry for breaking the mood, Ayame-chan," Naruto said quietly.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto-kun," she said. "You couldn't have known."

"I hate seeing you sad," he said.

She flashed him a weak smile. "I'll be alright by tomorrow."

He walked her to her door. She said goodbye with a hug that was tighter and longer than normal.

* * *

True to her word, Ayame was back to normal by the time Naruto stopped by Ichiraku Ramen the next evening. After the obligatory ramen gorging, Ayame took him to a secluded training ground.

"Show me the training sequences," she said.

Naruto ran through the sequences she had shown him the previous night.

"That's pretty good, Naruto-kun," she said cheerfully. "That's an excellent improvement for just one day—even with clones."

He flashed her a grin at the compliment. Both Kakashi and Jiraiya had always been sparse in their praise of his efforts.

"I'd like you to have about ten clones keep working on those," she said.

He made the clones and they stepped off to the side to start running through the sequences.

"What techniques do you know that require hand signs, other than Shadow Clones?" Ayame asked.

"Transformation, Replacement, and Summoning," he replied.

"I'd like ten clones each practicing the seal sequences for those techniques," she said. "Do it without chakra for now."

He formed 30 more clones and they started practicing hand seals.

"You'll need to practice doing it yourself, too," she said. "Shadow Clones can help build up reflexes, but they can't help you with the actual finger dexterity. Why don't you start with Replacement, since it's the most important out of the three to be able to do rapidly."

"Ah, Ayame-chan," he complained. "It's only an E-rank."

"How often does Kakashi-san use it?" she asked.

Naruto thought about it and said, "All the time. It's actually kind of annoying in spars."

Ayame giggled. "And how often do you use it?"

He chuckled ruefully, rubbing the back of his head. "I haven't used it since the Academy."

She arched an eyebrow. "Why not? Too slow at it to be useful?"

He nodded.

"Wouldn't you like to be as annoying as Kakashi-san?" she asked.

He smiled widely and got to work.

"Just so you know," Ayame said sweetly. "This is the only annoying habit of Kakashi-san's you're allowed to pick up. No lateness and none of those disgusting books."

He nodded quickly.

After a couple of hours, it became too dark to see well and they walked back to Ayame's apartment. Like she had previously, she stopped him about 20 meters from the door.

"Thanks for helping me, Ayame-chan," he said.

"It was my pleasure, Naruto-kun," she replied.

She gave him a quick hug and walked away swinging her hips. When she was almost to the door, she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. He gave her a quick grin and waved a jaunty goodbye.


	5. Chapter 5: Hurdles to Happiness

The next day, after polishing off his ramen, Naruto and Ayame went back to the training ground.

"Okay, Naruto-kun," Ayame said. "Show me the training sequence and then demonstrate the three techniques for me."

Naruto showed her the training sequence and then the Transformation, Replacement, and Summoning Techniques. For the last he summoned Gamakichi.

"Hiya, Kichi," he said.

"What's up, Bro?" Gamakichi responded.

"Not much," Naruto said. "Just showing Ayame-chan my awesome techniques."

"Cool," the toad said. "Got any candy?"

Naruto tossed the toad a piece of candy.

"Need anything else?" Gamakichi asked.

"Nope, you're free to go," he said.

"Later," the toad said and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"He's bigger than when you showed him to me before you left," Ayame commented. "Still likes candy though?"

"Uh huh," Naruto said. "I'm dreading the day he starts demanding sake like his pop."

Ayame giggled. "Those were all pretty good, Naruto-kun. Keep practicing them. Once you get a feel for a technique you can even start omitting hand seals. With an E or D-rank, you should be able to get it down to one or none. I absolutely recommend you do this for the Replacement Technique. The Nidaime Hokage was famous for being able to do A-rank water techniques with only one hand sign."

"Wow," Naruto murmured. Then he perked up. "So, do I get a reward for my excellent performance?" he asked cheekily.

Ayame made a show of tapping her lips and thinking about the response. Then she grinned at him. "I suppose."

He smiled widely. "What do I get?"

"How about a C-rank Wind Release technique?" she asked.

"That would be awesome!" he said.

She grinned back at him. "This is the Great Breakthrough Technique. It fires a wide blast of air in front of you to push things away. It's especially useful for stopping missile weapons from hitting you, but it has a lot of potential uses."

"I think Orochimaru hit us with this in the second part of the Chuunin Exams," Naruto murmured.

"The hand signs are: Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake," she said.

Naruto practiced the sequence for half an hour before Ayame let him try it with chakra. Once he got the sequence down, he tried it with chakra. The first attempt was a dud. The second attempt gave a small puff of wind. The third attempt knocked over a pair of trees.

"Woo hoo!" Naruto yelled, jumping up and down.

"Good job, Naruto-kun," Ayame said, clapping.

Naruto flew over to her and wrapped her in a hug.

"Thanks so much, Ayame-chan," he said.

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun," she said. "I like to see you happy." She tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "Life has been hard for you. You deserve it."

"You deserve to be happy to, Ayame-chan," he said, staring into her eyes. Her dark eyes seemed to pull him towards her. He leaned down slowly. He tilted his head so that their noses did not touch. Just as he was about to kiss her, her hand gently pushed his face away.

He noticed that there were tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. We shouldn't do this. It will just make it hurt more when I'm gone."

"Gone?" he asked, startled. "Where are you going? Why are you going? Is it because of me?"

She put a finger over his mouth. "It's not because of you, Naruto-kun. It's because I'm dying. I have a terminal illness."

"What? That's it?" Naruto exclaimed. "Let's go see Baachan and she can fix it."

He started to pull her by the hand.

She giggled. "Naruto-kun, wait. You can't just barge in on Hokage-sama."

"Sure I can," he said. "I do it all the time." He began to pull her again.

She laughed. "Naruto-kun, stop! I'm not really here. I'm a Shadow Clone."

"What!?" he turned and stared at her. "Where's the real you?"

She sighed. "Let's go to your place and I'll tell you the whole story."

They walked to Naruto's apartment in silence. Naruto was wracked with worry over his closest and oldest friend.

When they got there, Ayame pulled out a small piece of paper with a seal on it. She activated it and then said as they both sat down on Naruto's couch, "Privacy seal. What we're going to talk about right now is beyond S-rank."

Naruto started. "Really?"

She nodded seriously. "I'm trusting you with a lot, Naruto-kun, however, you've shown me in the last few weeks that I think you can handle it. You can't talk about this with _anyone_ other than Hokage-sama. That includes Kakashi-san and Jiraiya-sama. You should even make sure that Hokage-sama's ANBU can't hear this without Hokage-sama hearing the whole story first and okaying it. Do you understand, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded seriously. "I do."

"First of all," Ayame said, "I'm currently on a long-term SS-rank infiltration mission that only Sandaime-sama knew about. However, due to special circumstances in my childhood, I have access to seals that allow me to make a long-lasting Shadow Clone that can regenerate chakra slowly."

"So the real you hasn't been here at all?" Naruto asked, disappointed.

She smiled at him as she shook her head. "The real me was here for your second and third visits to Ramen Ichiraku before I had to head out again."

For some reason the fact that he had not just been interacting only with a Shadow Clone made Naruto feel better. "What special circumstances, Ayame-chan?"

"Please promise me that you'll hear me out completely before you leave or do anything else, Naruto-kun?" she begged.

"I promise," he said.

"I come from a traditional clan that values sons far more than daughters," she said.

"Teuchi isn't your father?" Naruto asked.

"He is," Ayame said, "but he's not my biological father."

She took a deep breath. "My biological father, never considered that his firstborn wouldn't be a son and boasted about how special his son would be before I was born. When I was born a daughter, his pride wouldn't allow him to admit it. He insisted that I be named the name he had picked out for his firstborn son and threatened my mother with my death if she told anyone that I was a girl. To the clan and the village, I was a boy. My mother couldn't openly defy my father, so she worked behind the scenes to make things bearable for me. As far as I know, only Sandaime-sama and my mother's former ANBU team knew that I was a girl."

"Your mother was ANBU too?" Naruto asked.

She nodded. "Until she was forced to retire from active duty by the clan in order to marry. Her ANBU teammates were Teuchi-tousan and your mother."

"You know who my mother was?" Naruto said quietly.

"Yes, Kushina-obasan was also my mother's best friend. She used to come and visit until she died the day you were born. She had bright red hair and a loud, boisterous personality."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto asked. He blinked back tears.

"Sandaime-sama made it a condition of allowing Tousan and me to associate with you," Ayame said.

"What?! The Old Man did that!?" Naruto exclaimed.

"He said that since your parents were very notable shinobi that you would be kidnapped or assassinated if your parents were known. He told me that Kumo had once kidnapped your mother for her heritage. Until you got back from your training trip, you weren't discrete at all. He was afraid that you would tell people to get attention."

Naruto chuckled bitterly. "That's probably true, but it doesn't mean I'm happy about it."

Ayame nodded. "Sometimes when you were feeling especially lonely I wanted to tell you badly, but if I had I'd never have been able to see you again."

"My mom's name was Kushina?" he asked her.

She nodded. "Uzumaki Kushina."

"Do you know who my dad was?" she asked.

Ayame hesitated. "I was never told. Kushina-obasan kept her relationship secret. I have a guess, but I don't want to say in case I'm wrong."

Naruto sighed.

"Even when I was very small, my clan decided that I was a once-in-a-generation genius. This inspired my father to intensify the deception with more boasting. My mother contacted her old ANBU captain who had just opened a ramen stand to provide me with an outlet where I could be a 'normal girl.' Your mother provided me with a seal that disguised me so that I could pass as Teuchi-tousan's daughter."

"This isn't what you really look like?" Naruto asked.

She shook her head. "I'll show you what I really look like in a few moments. It's not too different, but enough that people won't know which clan I belong to. Your mother also gave me the seal that allows me to leave a long-term Shadow Clone behind, although I couldn't use it until a couple of years after her death."

She paused for a moment and then looked at him sadly and whispered, "Please don't hate me." She took a deep breath and then whispered, "Release."

Ayame's hair turned black and her face changed. Her chin became more rounded and her cheekbones higher. Her nose became less prominent and the shape of her eyes changed.

"Uchiha," Naruto said. Then his eyes became huge as he put the words she had said together with her apparent clan. " _Itachi_." His heart rate sped up and he had to fight down the urge to flee or attack her. This was _Ayame_ and he had _promised_ her he would listen. His chances of escaping from or fighting off Itachi by himself were pretty slim anyway.

"Why'd you do it, Itachi?" Naruto asked as calmly as he could.

"Please call me Ayame, Naruto-kun," she asked. "It's the name that my mother wanted to call me."

He just stared at her.

She flinched and said, "The Kyuubi's attack started a lot of rumors. Many people remembered that Uchiha Madara, the traitorous co-founder of Konoha had been able to control the Kyuubi with his Sharingan. Hokage-sama's advisor's pushed him to isolate the Uchiha into their own district as a preventative measure against treachery, which enraged the clan.

"On a more personal note, my mother had been named your godmother. When she asked to be allowed to fulfill her responsibilities to you, Sandaime-sama flatly refused and told her he would execute her for treason if she approached her. Koharu-san snidely implied that my mother had leaked the timing and location of your birth. Sandaime-sama quickly reprimanded Koharu-san and forced her to apologize to my mother. He then told my mother that her staying away from you was for her protection so that nobody could accuse her of impropriety concerning you."

"Good cop, bad cop," Naruto murmured.

Ayame/Itachi nodded. "It was obvious to my family, which ran the Konoha Military Police Force. The implied accusation that she was responsible for her best friend's death enraged my mother."

"Why would the Old Man's advisors think that?" Naruto asked.

She smiled wanly. "Your mother was the previous jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. For it to have escaped, someone had to have released it. The seal on a female jinchuuriki is weak when she gives birth. The village had made contingencies for that, which was one of the reasons why your birth was in a secret location. My mother said that Yondaime-sama himself was present to reinforce the seal on your mother."

"How did it escape then?" Naruto asked.

"Nobody knows," Ayame answered. "It's apparent that Sandaime-sama and his advisors thought that there was a good chance that an Uchiha, or even the Uchiha clan, was involved. This mostly unsaid accusation and the actions that Konoha took because of it drove a wedge between Konoha's leadership and the Uchiha. The Uchiha are very proud and the accusation hurt that pride very badly. The wedge got wider and wider as I got older. My mother might have been able to do something about it as she was a fairly skilled manipulator and my father's pride was a huge lever on him, but the personal slight against her enraged her to the point that she let my father off his leash. The Uchiha clan planned a coup to take over Konoha. I think part of my mother's motivation was to make things better for you. She often asked me to watch you from the shadows to make sure you were okay.

"In order to help with the coup, my father allowed me to join ANBU in order to be his spy. This placed me in an awkward position where I would have to betray either my oath to Konoha or my family. After many sleepless nights I came to the conclusion that if my family rebelled and attempted to take over Konoha, that win or lose, it would leave Konoha vulnerable to attack from the other villages and the chances of it triggering the Fourth Shinobi War were too high and I became a double-agent for Sandaime-sama."

"Why did your father put you in ANBU?" Naruto asked. "Didn't he realize that you resented him?"

Ayame laughed bitterly. "My father's pride and arrogance didn't allow him to realize that I did, or he thought that I would just meekly go along with his plans like a good girl.

"To his credit, Sandaime-sama tried to patch things up with the Uchiha clan, but by that time, too many accusations and too much bad will existed. I also suspect that at least one of his advisors undermined the talks for his own benefit."

"Who?" asked Naruto angrily.

"Shimura Danzou. I want you to avoid him, Naruto-kun," she said seriously.

"But. . ." he protested.

"Despite his decrepit appearance, his skill is nearly on par with Sandaime-sama's before his death," Ayame warned. "He's also a master manipulator with his own private ANBU squad that is brainwashed to be fanatically loyal only to him. If you attack him, or even accuse him, he would use that as a lever imprison you or to bring you under his control."

"Okay," Naruto said, "but I _will_ be talking to Baachan about him."

Ayame nodded. "She probably knows some of what he has going on, but doesn't have the political capital to do much about it currently."

"But she's the Hokage!" Naruto protested.

"Hokage-sama operates with the will of the clans, the individual shinobi of Konoha, the Fire Daimyo, and, to a lesser extent, the people of Konoha. If the Hokage is too arbitrary, she will be replaced in order to prevent rebellion or Konoha losing clients. Danzou has a lot of respect among the shinobi of Konoha, even if very few actually like him. He also has a respectable amount of influence at the Daimyo's court."

Naruto frowned, but nodded.

"Danzou and the other two advisors presented me with a signed and sealed order from Sandaime-sama telling me to eliminate the Uchiha clan."

"The Old Man wouldn't. . ." Naruto protested.

"He might have, with regret, done so," Itachi said, "but in this case, he didn't. His advisors acted on their own. I complied with the order, to my shame and eternal self-hatred. A masked man with a single Sharingan offered his help. Knowing I couldn't do it by myself, I agreed. The man claimed he was Uchiha Madara, the traitorous co-founder of Konoha, and that he was eliminating his clan in revenge for supporting Senju Hasirama-sama for Shodai Hokage instead of him. I would have spared most of the non-shinobi, but this supposed Madara spared only Sasuke-chan at my insistence."

"Couldn't you have done something to save the other kids?" Naruto asked.

Ayame/Itachi shook her head. "He might not really be Madara, but he is more skilled than me. If I had intervened, he would have killed me and Sasuke-chan as well."

"Do you think that he was the one that freed the Kyuubi from my mom?" Naruto asked.

Ayame nodded. "I do. After the massacre, when I reported to Sandaime-sama, he was shocked that I had received the order. I talked to him about 'Madara' and he assigned me to infiltrate his organization."

"Akatsuki," Naruto said.

Ayame nodded. "I joined the organization to protect Konoha and you."

"So you weren't really trying to capture me back when I was trying to find Baachan with Ero-sennin?"

She shook her head. "I'd only put a weak genjutsu on that woman. I was planning on stalling until Jiraiya-sama got there."

"How could you do it?" Naruto asked seriously.

"I killed my heart and did my duty," she said as she looked down.

Naruto was reminded of Haku's words on his first real mission.

"I saved my parents for last. They actually told me they understood and were proud of me for doing my duty."

"Even your jerk of a dad?" Naruto asked.

She nodded sadly. "At the end he apologized for the pain he had caused me."

Naruto shook his head sadly. "Why did you put your brother under that awful genjutsu?"

Ayame shrank into herself.

"You want him to kill you, don't you?" he asked.

"I want him to redeem the Uchiha clan," she said quietly. "I'm dying anyway."

Naruto scooted over and put his hands on Ayame's shoulders. "I don't want you to die, Ayame-chan."

"Even after all the horrible things I've done?" she asked, sniffling. "It's not just the massacre, I've done almost as bad while a member of Akatsuki."

"We live in a horrible world, Ayame-chan," Naruto said. "I promise you we'll change it and bring peace."

"That would be wonderful, Naruto-kun," she said, "but I don't think I'll live to see it."

"I'll save you, Ayame-chan," Naruto said. "I promise and I always keep my promises."

Ayame smiled sadly, but fondly at him.

Naruto pulled Ayame against him and put her around her. She curled up against him, continuing to sniffle. Naruto felt his own eyes water a little. They silently drew comfort from each other, eventually falling asleep on the couch.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Bwahahah! I hope this was a surprise for most of you, but still reasonable looking back.

Ayame calls Sasuke "chan" to say that he's immature.


	6. Chapter 6: Resolutions and Epilogue

Naruto was in Kaze no Kuni, on the edge of the desert where Suna lay. He had managed to ditch Hinata and Yamato with a Shadow Clone. They were hunting "Itachi" in order to capture Sasuke. Things had been awkward with Hinata since Ino had revealed that he had been flirting with Ayame, but he had managed to get by through pretending to be oblivious.

"Hello, Naruto-kun," said Itachi's voice.

He turned and saw Itachi's stoic features. A crow with one Sharingan eye was perched on his shoulder.

"Ayame-chan?" he asked hesitantly.

Itachi's features dissolved into the Uchiha version of Ayame. It had been weeks since he had seen her. She had been gone when he had woken up the morning after her confession. She had left a note. He had memorized it. He went over it in his mind again:

 _Dear Naruto-kun,_

 _I cannot bear to see you sad about my fate, so I will be gone by the time you awaken. I apologize for leaving you like this, but I believe you will be better off without me. I also apologize for getting your hopes up that there could be something more than friendship between us. I didn't mean for it to go that far. I initially started teasing you that way in order to cheer you up, but once I started I couldn't stop._

 _Please look after my foolish little brother once I am gone._

 _Love,_

 _Ayame_

She had also included a scroll with a short description of each member of Akatsuki with a description of their strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, what she knew about Pein, his so-called paths, and Tobi (the man who claimed to be Madara) was extremely limited and what she did know was very troubling.

Ayame looked worn out. As he watched her she had a brief coughing fit. He noticed that while the crow was looking straight at him, Ayame was not. Her eyes were unfocused.

"Come with me, Ayame-chan," he said.

Her head turned toward his voice. "I don't have much time left, Naruto-kun," she said. "I just wanted to say goodbye to you in person before I go to meet my foolish little brother."

Naruto ignored her words as he approached her. "I have Shizune-neechan camped not too far from here. She can hold you over until Baachan can fix you."

Ayame looked pained and then had another short coughing fit. "I need to redeem my clan, Naruto-kun."

"How come you look so poor?" he asked worriedly. "You didn't look bad at all a couple of weeks ago."

"I've been holding off the symptoms of my disease with my chakra, but it's progressed too far for that now. Please don't ignore me Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed as he stopped in front of her. She finally focused her eyes on him.

"What's wrong with your eyes, Ayame-chan?" he asked.

"I've used the Mangekyou Sharingan too much recently. It's been slowly making me blind. The only remedy would be to transplant Sasuke-chan's eyes into me."

She stared at him dispassionately. "Am I going to have to fight you, Naruto-kun, in order for you to let me go?"

He shook his head. "I've figured out a way for Emo-chan to get closure by killing 'Itachi' and for 'Ayame' to live. I _promised_ you that I would save you, Ayame-chan."

Her stoic resolve cracked slightly. "I don't deserve. . ."

"I don't want you to die!" Naruto shouted. His voice cracked as he added, "Please don't leave me, Ayame-chan."

She sighed. "Okay, Naruto-kun. I'll listen to your plan."

They walked for an hour until they came to Shizune's campsite. Naruto jabbered almost nonstop, but Ayame remained withdrawn.

"So it's true," Shizune said as the two entered the campsite.

The two stared at each other for a few moments until Ayame turned to Naruto and said with a trace of amusement, "So you found another 'neechan,' Naruto-kun?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes, but I have no plans to make Shizune-chan more than a sister."

"Oh?" Ayame said. "Did you have plans for me?"

"I do now," he said with a smirk.

"How about we explain our plan to Ayame-san and you two can flirt later," Shizune said amusedly.

"Fine," Naruto said. "Have you heard of the Blood Clone Technique, Ayame-chan?"

"Only in passing," she said. "I only know that it has too many drawbacks to be used regularly."

"It _does_ have some pretty big disadvantages," Naruto admitted, "but it's probably perfect for what we want. A Blood Clone is a perfect clone, but it doesn't have its own consciousness. However, you can transfer your consciousness to it."

"It's sort of like using a Yamanaka mind technique with a replica body," Shizune added.

"It has two drawbacks that make it not used very often," he continued. "The clone body will last for about 24 hours after death, meaning that anyone that finds the clone will be able to examine the body and get many of the user's secrets. The other disadvantage is that if you die in the clone body, the mental backlash is likely to put you into a permanent coma. The only reason we're considering it for this situation is that Baachan is positive that she could fix you if that happened. That said, I'd appreciate it if you made an effort to leave the clone before dying."

Ayame looked at him and he put as much pleading into his eyes as he could. Finally, she looked down into her lap and said quietly, "Very well, I'll try your plan, Naruto-kun." She looked up and stared into his eyes. "For you."

* * *

Naruto frowned as he sat beside Ayame's eyeless, comatose body. Shizune knelt beside him, keeping her vitals steady.

His Shadow Clone that had trailed Ayame's Blood Clone had just created and dispelled a Shadow Clone to let him know what had happened.

His foolish love interest had allowed herself to die while still in the Blood Clone. Sasuke had collapsed after managing to mortally wound the Blood Clone.

A puff of smoke announced the arrival of one of his smaller toad summons, Kousuke. The toad carried a small jar with Sasuke's eyeballs in it. He had accompanied the two Shadow Clones carrying Ayame's eyes. Shizune's Shadow Clone must have successfully removed Sasuke's.

He passed the jar to Shizune. She began transplanting them into Ayame.

Naruto swore as he got another set of Shadow Clone memories. An insane man calling himself Tobi had stolen Ayame's eyes and then Sasuke before Shizune's Shadow Clone could put Ayame's eyes in him. The only good news was that Tobi had claimed that he would make sure that "Sasuke-chan" got the eyes since he was "a good boy." Sasuke was too unstable to leave in Akatsuki's hands.

"I'll save your brother, Ayame-chan," he said quietly. "I promise."

* * *

Naruto sat next to Ayame's bed, holding her hand. They were in a secret room underneath the Hospital.

"I did it, Ayame-chan," he told her comatose body. "I beat Pein. It turned out he wasn't such a bad guy, just misguided by that Tobi guy. I even met a Shadow Clone of my dad when I let the Fox get away from me after Pein killed Hinata-chan in front of me for defending me. Fortunately, Nagato, that's Pein's real name, used a technique that brought everyone who had died back to life. Unfortunately, Baachan is in a coma now too because Nagato's technique only affected the dead.

"That Danzou guy you didn't like has taken over. He claims it's just until Baachan wakes up, but I can tell he's consolidating power. The only good news is that he's leaving for a Gokage conference soon. Hopefully he doesn't make things bad for Konoha there and Baachan wakes up while he's gone."

* * *

Naruto was in Ayame's room again. Months had passed since he had been able to be here.

"I did it, Ayame-chan. Akatsuki is defeated and peace is here. I think it might even last for a while. I managed to save Sasuke to, like I promised. Kakashi-sensei, who was made Rokudaime, pardoned for helping to save the world and got the other nations to go along with it with some help from me."

"Please wake up, Ayame-chan."

* * *

Naruto rushed into Ayame's room.

Shizune and Tsunade were already there.

"Slow down, Brat," Tsunade said. "She's not actually conscious yet."

"Why did you call me here then, Baachan?" he asked, irritated.

"She's moved into normal sleep, Naruto-kun," Shizune explained. "She's not in a coma anymore."

"Can you wake her?" he asked.

"It's better if she does it on her own," Shizune said.

Evidently, he was being too loud because Ayame groaned out, "Naruto-kun?"

He was instantly by her side. "Ayame-chan?"

She opened her eyes. "Ugh. I feel like I took one of Gai-san's Dynamic Entries to my head and then was dragged around Konoha by my ankles for 20 of his laps."

"It's less than you deserve for dying in that Blood Clone," grumbled Tsunade.

Something in Ayame's look told him that she had done it on purpose. "I thought you weren't going to use dying in the Blood Clone as a type of atonement," he chided.

She shrugged. "I needed to make sure he saw me die."

"You're going to need a bit of time to recover, Ayame-san," Shizune said. "You were in a coma for six months. We've done what we could to make sure your muscles didn't deteriorate, but you'll still need physical therapy."

"Baachan was able to cure your lung disease," Naruto added.

"It wasn't even hard," Tsunade said. "You should have come to me earlier."

"But my crime. . ." she protested.

"Doing something ordered by a sealed and signed order from the Hokage is not a crime," Tsunade said firmly. "More experienced people than you have been fooled into doing worse by that slime-ball Danzou. Sensei felt bad for putting you in that position and included a full pardon in your secret file anyway, which I found after the Brat came to me about you. There are a lot of people that would forgive a lot for the Brat's sake anyway—and myself and the current Hokage are among them."

Ayame raised an eyebrow.

"Kakashi-sensei is Rokudaime," Naruto pouted.

Shizune snickered and Tsunade laughed.

"You need a little more seasoning before you get the Hat, Brat," Tsunade said. "You can rest assured that Kakashi-san is too lazy to make you wait that long."

"He's so lazy that he hasn't even really taken office yet," Naruto said with a snort. "He's only signed one pronouncement, but it can't go into effect until he does." He glared at Tsunade. "It's not too late to change your mind on who will be Rokudaime."

"Brat, you're not even 17 yet," Tsuande said.

"Gaara-kun's my age and _he_ got to be Godaime and has been Kazekage for a couple of years," Naruto complained.

"Brat, Gaara-san has gravitas that you will never manage!" Tsunade said. "All Konoha respects you, but they aren't convinced you won't declare ramen the chief god of Konoha yet."

Ayame giggled. When she stopped laughing, she said seriously, "What happened with Sasuke-kun, Akatsuki, and Danzou?"

"Emo-chan killed Danzou, Akatsuki is all dead, and Sasuke-kun's official pardon is the proclamation that Kakashi-sensei signed," Naruto said. He glared at Tsunade.

"Pardoning Uchiha-san is the only leverage that I have on getting my retirement anytime soon, Brat. It's not like anyone is going to be able to arrest him in the meantime," Tsunade snapped.

Ayame and Shizune giggled in response. Naruto almost feel onto the floor, laughing so hard.

After Naruto had gotten control of himself, he took Ayame's hand and said, "I have a bone to pick with you, Ayame-chan. That crow forcing itself into my mouth was one of the most disgusting things I've ever felt."

Ayame snickered. "I bet it saved your life, right?"

Naruto nodded with a shiver. "It did, but I would have almost died. Kabuto used Edo Tensai to resurrect a lot of people as minions. Your crow freed Shisui-san from his control. Shisui-san then told us what Kabuto's plan was." He shuddered again. "It was just as gross coming out." He looked at Ayame. "Shisui-san incinerated your crow though, so that his eye wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

Ayame sighed. "I probably would have done the same."

Naruto went on to explain everything that had happened while she was in a coma.

When he was done, Ayame squeezed his hand. "You did very well Naruto-kun. I'm proud of you."

"I promised you, Ayame-chan," he said, "and I always keep my promises."

"While it may not seem logical because she just came out of a coma," Shizune said, "but Ayame-san needs rest to help her recover. It's time for you to go, Naruto-kun."

"Okay, Neechan," Naruto said. "I'll be back soon, Ayame-chan."

"I'll be waiting, Naruto-kun," she said with a smile.

* * *

It was a week before Ayame was allowed to leave the Hospital. Only her shinobi constitution and Tsunade's work made it possible. She would still need to go through some more physical therapy, but was well enough to be released.

Naruto walked hand in hand with her. "Feel up to going up to the top of the Hokage Monument?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "If I can't make it, you'll carry me, right?

"Sure," he said.

It was a good spot for them to talk. They had refrained from talking about their relationship due to the fear of Tsunade, Shizune, or, worst of all, Sakura walking in on them talking.

Naruto did end up carrying her by the time they made it half way up. Ayame snuggled into his chest as he carried her bridal style.

When they stopped on top of the Yondaime's head, Naruto sat down, but kept Ayame in his arms. He said, "Did you know he was my dad?"

"I suspected," Ayame admitted. "You look a lot like him, but I didn't want to get your hopes up."

"I was able to talk to him and my mom a little bit because of the chakra they left behind in the Kyuubi's seal and then because Kabuto used Edo Tensai on my dad."

"I'm glad you got the chance," she said.

Naruto laughed. "Did you know that Dad actually asked Sakura-chan if she was my girlfriend?"

"Oh?" Ayame said, arching an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"I was so surprised, I was too slow in denying it," he said with a chuckle, "and Sakura-chan blew up at me. Dad said that her temper reminded him of my mom's. Sakura-chan protested and told him that you were my girlfriend. He remembered you from Mom dragging him to Ramen Ichiraku. There was never a good time to tell him you were also Itachi."

"Am I your girlfriend, Naruto-kun?" she asked.

"We would have to discuss it, of course," he said.

"Good answer," she said archly.

He flashed a grin at her. "I _can_ learn, evidently. Like I said, we need to talk about it, but when I think about who I want to spend my life with, I can only picture you. You were my first friend, my best teacher, and are the one who knows me best."

"What about Hinata-san?" Ayame asked. "Now that you're a shoe in for Nanadaime Hokage, not even the Hyuuga can complain—especially if your heritage leaked."

"I like Hinata-chan and consider her a good friend," Naruto said, "but my heart belongs to you, Ayame-chan."

"You deserve better than me, Naruto-kun," she said, looking down.

He lifted her chin. "Why don't you let me decide whether I deserve you or not? You can decide whether I'm worthy of you."

"To be honest, when my Shadow Clone dispersed and I learned that it had confessed to you, I wanted nothing more to go back and spend my last days with you. It took all my willpower to follow through with my plan to give Sasuke-chan closure."

He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. This time she did not stop him. They sat there silently for a while with Ayame leaning against him, enjoying the feel of each other.

"What are we going to do about my disguise?" Ayame asked. She had let it lapse once they had arrived on top of the monument.

"I think you should abandon it," Naruto said. "We can tell everyone that you're Itachi's twin sister that was hidden due to politics and then the massacre."

"That won't fool Sasuke-chan," Ayame noted.

"We'll tell him the truth in private," Naruto said. "He'll appreciate that his beloved older brother is still alive in some way. He went on quite the rampage on your behalf. Tobi, who turned out to be your cousin Obito, sunk his hooks into him and he went off the deep end before redeeming himself in the end."

"I can't say that I'll miss being Itachi anymore, really," Ayame said. "I might miss working with Teuchi-tousan, though."

"Who says you have to stop being Ramen-chan?" Naruto teased.

She lightly swatted him. "You realize that if you _do_ spend your life with me, I'll make you eat more than just ramen, don't you?"

"Ramen-chan, how could you betray your craft?" False tears fell from his eyes.

* * *

Epilogue

Naruto looked down lovingly as his wife held their dark-haired newborn second child on her chest. He held the oldest, the two-year-old, blond-haired, blue-eyed Boruto.

"Are you sure you want to name her Mikoto, Ayame-chan?" he asked. "I don't want you to be reminded of your life's greatest tragedy every time you look at our daughter."

"Yes," Ayame said. "I truly loved my mother. Naming our daughter after her is to show that love and to make new, better memories associated with her name. It's also a pledge to be a better mother than my mother was able to be because of circumstances."

"If you're sure," Naruto said with his customary grin.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This ended up being a short one. I was more interested in the beginning of the relationship than the hard part of making it work. I won't likely be adding to this one other than possibly an omake or two if the muse strikes.

Why Fem!Itachi? Itachi is the most tragic figure in Naruto and Naruto is arguably the second-most (not counting minor ones like Haku). I wanted to put them together and I don't write slash. The only way I've really ever seen it done was in Naruto Banishment stories, some of which are good, but most start out pretty contrived (I don't think there's any way Tsunade would stand for Naruto being banished, even if Konoha's system allowed for it). Separately, I got to wondering about if Itachi was going to have a disguise for when he/she was in Konoha who would it be? The two ideas merged into this one.

This story also delves into why Mikoto was never involved with her best friend's son's life. Outside of her being the one who sold out Kushina, this is really the only thing that makes sense to me. It's also a reasonable explanation as to why the Yondaime's Wife's best friend could participate in the coup.

Why no scene with Sasuke and Ayame? This was about Naruto and Ayame. The astute will notice that all scenes in this story had both of them in it. If I wrote an omake for this story, this would be the most likely. For now enjoy making up your own version of Sasuke's reaction to Itachi being his sister and surviving.

Why no details about Hinata's reaction? Again this was out of scope. This is the second-most likely omake I'd write, but, honestly, it's unlikely.

The Epilogue is based on my supposition that Himawari was named after Hinata's mother. It just seems like a Hyuuga name.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I had fun writing it. :) I'm not really apologetic about not warning about the twist in the summary.


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